Scene from La bandiera, world premiere of Al damunt dels nostres cants

Comedy · World premiere in 2025

The Flag

A family, a flag and two irreconcilable ways of understanding identity and symbols.

Teatro della Limonaia, Florence · 26 September 2025

A family facing a symbol

In November 2017, Guillem Clua became the only playwright to win the Premi de Teatre Ciutat d’Alcoi three times with this play about identity and the use of symbols in an era marked by political polarisation. Written as a comedy, The Flag (Al damunt dels nostres cants) tells, in a single act, how two brothers confront their father’s decision to hang a huge flag from his terrace, putting the unity of the family at risk.

Tomás, an elderly family man, has invited his two sons, Jesús and Antonio, to dinner to give them important news. The sons have no idea what it is and arrive quickly, convinced that something serious has happened. Lina, a documentary researcher helping him write his biography, also joins the dinner. Tomás takes his time before revealing his news. He seems to enjoy keeping his family in suspense and plays with them for quite a while, telling the most far-fetched stories about his life and driving both sons to distraction. At one point, Jesús discovers that Tomás has hung an enormous flag from the terrace, though we never see it. This apparently anecdotal fact blows everything apart, and the two brothers begin a confrontation in which not only the fate of the family inheritance is at stake, but also their father’s love.

Beneath the appearance of an innocent boulevard comedy about two brothers doing everything they can not to lose their inheritance, The Flag explores the clash between two irreconcilable ways of seeing their country. In an age dominated by post-truth and fake news, politicians work to make us read reality in black-and-white terms: “ours” and “theirs”, good and bad. There seems to be no room for nuance or mutual understanding. This is the trap Jesús and Antonio fall into—a trap set by their own father to test them and discover which of them can look beyond self-interest and recognise what truly defines them as a family.

The title refers to the first line of the Catalan patriotic hymn El cant de la senyera, instantly recognisable to Catalan audiences. Since the same meaning cannot be carried over into the Spanish, English and Italian versions—the languages into which the play has already been translated—the more understated title La bandera has been chosen. Despite winning the 43rd Premi de Teatre Ciutat d’Alcoi, the play has not yet been staged in Spain, but it had its world premiere at Teatro della Limonaia in Florence, Italy, in September 2025.